Barbara watches in horror at the crowd of innocent people running for their lives. The level of insanity escalates to the point that some are trampling over those that have tripped and fallen. She can't just stand there and do nothing! She walks away from the cockpit and says, “I can't let this go on. Send me down there.”
Dr. Frankenstein looks at her as if she has just lost her mind and shouts furiously, “No! David will rip you apart, Barbara!”
“Does it look like I'm asking for permission? Do it now or I'll tear my way out of this ship.”
Indrid observes David as he runs at the speed of a cheetah and her eyes widen at the sight of Joshua's vehicle right in his path. Without hesitation, she initiates the teleportation device and Barbara gets surrounded by the light.
Joshua sees something black and furry hopping from car to car approaching him. It looks like some kind of crazy dog. Does it have rabies or something? Suddenly, he gets briefly blinded by a bright flash, similar to what he experienced at his grandfather's house, and hears something heavy land on the rear of his Silverado. The force of the impact makes the entire pickup truck bounce on its tires. Once he regains his senses, Joshua takes a look back to find a woman with one half of her hair being dark brown while the other is blond. Another weird thing is that her facial skin tone seems to be lighter on one side than the other! She screams at him, “Get your head down now!”
There is a strange sound of a large animal breathing hard in front of Joshua. It makes him turn his head slowly to look at the windshield. He finds the most terrifying thing he has ever seen. The gigantic head of a black wolf staring at him with glowing yellow eyes. It opens its ferocious mouth and growls while the drool gradually drips down on the glass. Barbara screams louder at him, “Hurry! Duck and stay down!”
Joshua lowers his head just as David punches a hole through the windshield and avoids coming into contact with his fist. He feels the shards of glass fall on the back of his head and decides that it may be safer to hide under the dashboard. Is this really happening or is this some kind of lucid nightmare? The cuts on his fingers answers that question.
Barbara watches David grip the edges of the windshield with his burly hands and forcibly remove it from the pickup truck. She finds herself momentarily shivering with fear. Does she really stand a chance against him? Too late to change your mind now, girl. The boy needs you. She hops on top of the Silverado and kicks David as hard as she can with both of her feet. David yelps like a wounded dog, flies through the air and hits the rear of a taxi cab with his back so hard that the metal crumples inward while also shattering the rear glass. Barbara jumps off of the pickup and lands on her feet. She glances at what she has done and is impressed with herself!
“Whoa. I did that?”
David pushes himself to his feet while snarling at her. He whimpers as he yanks a long shard of glass from his arm. Barbara looks behind her to see Joshua taking a small peek and yells, “Don't move, kid! Stay where you are!”
She watches David get on all fours and he then slowly starts to circle her waiting for the perfect time to strike. Her hands tremble uncontrollably and her teeth begin to chatter as she dreadfully anticipates his attack.
“David. Don’t do this.”
He jumps at Barbara at such a fast speed that she really has no chance of dodging the attack. She gets the wind knocked out of her as a result of getting tackled by him and, afterwards, feels the sharp pain in her back upon hitting the brick wall behind her. She collapses to the sidewalk and uses her instinct to roll out of the way. A wise move because David slams both of his fists where she used to be which cause huge cracks to form on the pavement. She uses her hands to push herself up to the air, lands on her feet and chunks of concrete go flying in different directions as she yanks a metal pipe out of the sidewalk. Barbara grips it tightly like a baseball bat and says, “Fine. We'll do this your way.”
David roars wildly at her while he attempts to hit her with first his right fist followed by his left. She ducks to avoid both strikes and uppercuts him with the pole breaking apart the remaining concrete. This hard blow stuns him and causes him to stagger from left to right while holding his head. Barbara formulates a plan to neutralize David without killing him. She swings the pole as hard as she can and strikes his stomach with such force that all of the air escapes from his lungs with a tremendous gasp. She then flips over him, places the pole across his throat and applies pressure on his back with her feet thus eliminating his ability to breathe.
Joshua can't help but watch this seemingly superhuman woman trying with all of her might to overpower the bestial monstrosity. He squints when he sees David ram himself backwards against the brick wall imagining the pain that she must be experiencing. Barbara coughs up blood from the impact but refuses to release him. She grunts when David's full body weight falls to ground on top of her.
“Will you pass out already?”
After several desperate attempts to reach for her, David finally becomes limp and loses consciousness. Christ! He weighs a ton! Unfortunately, Barbara is in too much pain to push him off. It hurts when she breathes so it may be a broken rib. She looks at Joshua standing there beside her in a state of shock and denial.
“A little help here, kid?”
He snaps out of it and rushes to her aid. He leans against the wall and pushes David with both of his feet. Both he and Barbara yell as they use all of their strength to push him aside. Joshua kneels down and notices that she is trying to gasp for air but finding it extremely difficult. She grabs his wrist while telling him with a raspy voice, “I think I broke a rib.”
“I'm no good with wounds. What should I do?”
“It's okay. Doc? Get us out of here.”
They both close their eyes as soon as the bright light surrounds them. Joshua begins to panic and tries to run away but Barbara does not let him go. He looks into her eyes with a high degree of anxiety. She says softly to him, “Trust me. You're safe.”
A few seconds later, the threesome appear on Indrid's ship. Force field restraints are immediately tied around David's body while Barbara is laid down on the floating glass table. She is holding herself and moaning with discomfort. Alexandria stands in front of a very confounded Joshua and grins while saying, “Welcome back to the ship, Josh.”
“This is where I met you?”
Dr. Frankenstein is heard replying, “That is correct. I decided to wipe your memory for obvious reasons. This time, however, I will not. Perhaps you can be of assistance to me, my dear boy.”
He glances over at Barbara squirming on the table and says, “I shall explain it all at a later time. For now, there are more important matters to deal with. Indrid?”
“Setting course for Area 51, Ludwig.”
Barbara has tears running down her cheeks from the unbearable pain in her chest. She looks up at Dr. Frankenstein and, even though it hurts to speak, she says, “Not one of my better ideas.”
He places his hand on her forehead and replies, “Try not to talk. I'll give you something for the pain.”
Barbara feels a needle get injected into her skin which results in a soothing relief that disperses from her arm then throughout her entire body. It is at this point that she cannot resist the temptation to fall asleep. Before doing so, she gazes over at the unconscious David still in his werewolf form. Her vision becomes blurry until there is nothing but darkness.
Indrid emerges out of the black, empty space and slowly makes her way towards Barbara. She arrives and simply stares at her for several minutes. Is this a dream? She finally asks Barbara, “Are you...comfortable?”
She can, of course, read her mind and know the answer to the question...but chooses not to. She recalls that she made this promise to Ludwig. A person's mind is, in a certain way, a sanctuary. To enter it without permission is a violation of privacy. Perhaps a nice view of the moonlit ocean can put Barbara at ease? Barbara asks, “Are you inside of my dream?”
Indrid grins as she looks at her and repl
ies, “Yes, I am. Would you like to accompany me somewhere, Barbara?”
She nods while at the same time feeling unsure of her decision. Indrid takes her hand and, in an instant, the view of the luminescent moon can be seen as they fly above the clouds. This reminds her of Peter Pan; one of her favorite stories from her childhood. They land on the edge of a high cliff overlooking the moonlit ocean below. As if following a routine, Indrid sits down and wraps her arms around her knees; like she did inside of her bubble during her childhood years. Barbara sits next to her and whispers, “This is beautiful.”
As the wind whips her hair across her youthful looking face, Indrid says, “This is my escape. I have never shared this with anyone. Not even Ludwig.”
“Thank you. Indrid? What ever happened to Chad?”
Without looking at her, Indrid replies, “I fell deeply in love with him three months after my premonition of the Silver Bridge disaster. I developed such a trust with Chad that I decided to reveal my secret to him shortly after we shared a moment of intimacy.”
Barbara can sense her disappointment and sorrow. “He became afraid.”
“Yes.”
Barbara is grateful for Indrid's willingness to share her innermost feelings and puts her arm around her. She ponders for a moment and asks, “We can cause so much hurt. Are we really worth it?”
Indrid confesses, “If not for him, I would have never felt compassion nor emotional pain. So, to answer your question...yes.”
They share a moment of silence. All that is heard are the ocean's waves as they crash onto the large rocks below. Barbara thinks to herself how much of a tremendous burden it must be to possess such powerful abilities as Indrid's, and having the decency to not abuse it.
Chapter V
Henry is walking at a slow pace along Griscom Mill Road in Corbin City, New Jersey. He stops to glance down at Peters Creek and remembers holding Eleanor in his arms while standing on this very spot on the 15th of May in 1940. He lights a cigarette and, while exhaling smoke, says to himself, “I kept my promise to come back, Ellie. Just didn't figure it would take me seventy-one years.”
He finishes the cigarette and discouragingly flicks it down towards the creek. The fact that nothing is left of his old life results in an unbearable emotional numbness. All because of what happened to him on that fateful day aboard the U.S.S. Eldridge. On the bright side, at least he didn't end up with half of his body sticking out of the inner hull of the ship or suffer from spontaneous combustion.
As Henry continues his walk, he contemplates to himself whether or not to take the risk of going to where she used to live on Route 50. What would happen if she saw and recognized him? He doesn't have a son, or any remaining family that's alive for that matter, so he can't use that as an explanation for the resemblance. There is the ol' doppelganger thing. Most people believe in the theory that there exists a lookalike for every person in the world. The hell with it. It's worth a shot just to see how she's doing.
He finally arrives at Route 50 and, to his surprise, finds the classic and colonial house where Eleanor lived still intact. It is as if the residence got stuck in that time period while everything around it advanced onward. Henry takes a deep breath and makes his way across the street. He sees an elderly woman kneeling on the freshly cut lawn while using her wrinkled hands to search for something that she seems to have lost. Just when she thinks that she has found the object, she realizes that it's a twig and tosses it away. He asks, “Do you need help, ma'am?”
“I can't find my darn glasses, young man.”
A woman's voice startles both of them as she says, “Check the pocket of your sweater, grandma.”
Henry turns his head to look at the young woman holding a grocery bag who just spoke to her grandmother. She has blond hair with light skin and looks to be around the same age as himself. The facial similarity to the Eleanor from his past makes him feel the comfortable warmness that he felt every time he smelled her or when she spoke with that sweet, gentle voice. The old woman laughs as she pulls out her eyeglasses from her pocket.
“There you are, you little rascal.”
As the woman tries to help her grandmother up to her feet with one hand, Henry offers to assist her by carrying the grocery bag. She grins in response to his kindness and hands it over to him.
“Thank you. I'm so sorry. She always does this. Puts her glasses in her pocket after she finishes reading and then forgets that it's there.”
“No problem. Happens to the best of 'em eventually.”
The old lady puts on her glasses and she takes a look at Henry to thank him. Her smile fades and she asks, “My gosh! Are you Henry?”
He is shocked to discover that the sweet old lady is indeed Eleanor Weller. Time has taken a toll on her. It seems a bit unfair that he has kept his youth while she has lost hers. After an odd silence, the young woman says to her, “That is not Henry, grandma. He looks like him but it's not him.”
Henry tells her, “My name's actually Roger, ma'am. Roger Gordon.”
That was pretty quick thinking on his part. He needed to come up with a name so he decided to use a combination of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Popular science fiction icons during those times. The young woman grins and introduces herself. “I'm Dawn McPherson and this is my grandmother, Eleanor Larsen.”
Of course she was going to find another guy, Henry. Don't be stupid. The Navy probably told her that he died during a mission. She needed to get on with her life and he needs to get on with his. Just as he is about to hand Dawn the grocery bag, Eleanor says, “I just made a fresh pot of coffee. Would you like a cup, Roger?”
Dawn knows what her grandmother is trying to do and shakes her head in disbelief. She is so desperate for more grandchildren that she goes out of her way to set her up with any man that she perceives as nice. Thanks but no thanks. She's already had her share of alcoholics and temper tantrums over trivial disagreements.
“Grandma! He probably has to be somewhere!”
“Now, Dawn. Show some manners to this kind young man. Come inside, Roger. I won't take no for an answer.”
Henry shrugs his shoulders at Dawn and says while smiling innocently, “I guess I don't have a choice. After you.”
Dawn steps closer and warns him in a low voice, “I swear to God, you better not be a fucked up psycho.”
Her crystal blue eyes places him into a trance-like state and he simply nods. The resemblance to Eleanor when she was young is, for lack of a better word, uncanny. The slight difference being that Dawn's lips seem to be much fuller. With each step that he takes toward the front door of the house, the more terrified he becomes. It's as if he is about to come face to face with a ghost.
Dawn steps through the front door and turns around to look at Henry. He looks very pale and is hesitating to step inside of the house for some reason. She asks, “Are you coming in or not?”
He whispers to himself, “This isn't right.”
“What?”
Henry shoves the grocery bag into her arms and says without looking into her eyes, “Sorry, Ellie. I just remembered that I do have to be somewhere.”
He shuts his eyelids tightly upon realizing that he just referred to Dawn as Ellie. He turns around and walks faster and faster...to the point that he is now jogging. He needs to get away from there. What was the point of that? Shouldn't have went there. Pointless. Frustrating. Pathetic.
Henry can't run anymore. His eyes are stinging from the sweat. He stops, takes deep breaths and hears the sound of a car approaching from behind. Much to his dismay, it stops right next to him. He tries to ignore the driver and continues walking.
“Hey!”
It's Dawn. She turns off the engine and opens the driver's side door. Judging by way she slammed it shut, she is extremely angry at him. He stops walking and prepares for the worst. She also stops walking and they both just stand there in silence. Dawn finally asks, “What was that all about? Do you want to be him?”
Henry becomes somewhat
offended by her insinuating that he is suffering from a mental disorder and slowly turns around. With sincerity, he replies, “No, El...uh, Dawn. Let's just forget the whole thing. I'm leaving and you'll never see me again.”
Dawn takes out an old photograph and walks toward him. She stands about a foot away and raises the picture until it is right next to his face. The image of Henry is identical to the man standing in front of her.
“Did you get plastic surgery or something?”
“No. I'll be on my way now.”
Not being able to resist, she grabs his right wrist and raises the sleeve. There it is. The scar on the lower left side of his palm from when he punched the window of his neighbor's locked door. Henry had chased a kid into that house because he had made fun of him. The kid locked the door and was taunting him from the inside. Out of rage, he punched the window with all of his strength and it shattered into hundreds of pieces. He saw that the boy was staring at his hand in horror so he looked down at it. One of the shards of glass had embedded itself deep into his hand. One of many stories her grandmother had told her of Henry's childhood.
Dawn gasps and feels herself become dizzy. She faints and Henry holds her just in time thus preventing a potentially ugly fall to the hard pavement.
“Shit. You really are stupid, Henry.”
A half hour later, Dawn opens her eyes and finds herself in the driver's seat of her Honda Fit. She turns her head to see that Henry is sitting beside her and begins squirming in fear of what she is witnessing. After coming to the realization that what she is witnessing is indeed reality, she takes a deep breath.
Rise of the Fallen: Ascensionis Page 10
